28 March, 2017

“We have a patient laying there
and blood is shooting to the ceiling. All in the world we can do is trim the
toenails. Blood is shooting to the ceiling. We’ve got to do something.”

Governor Jim
Justice

If the metaphors Governor Jim Justice unleashes on his
political detractors were supposed to turn and come yapping and snapping back at
him like an Ohio County poodle, this classic by West Virginia’s Metaphorist In
Chief would be perfect. West Virginia is depicted as a hemorrhaging patient
whose doctors (Justice’s detractors) prepare the soon-to-be corpse for burial
instead of stopping the bleeding and saving the patient’s life. This metaphor
would be very effective not for the fact that its creator, Jim Justice, is
offering only cosmetic improvements – better roads - instead of suturing the
wound.

West Virginia is not hemorrhaging jobs and population
because our roads are bad. West Virginia is losing jobs and people because the “outside
investment” that would infuse our state with life-saving jobs and tax revenue
will not come here until we have the STEM-educated, 21st century
workforce they need. This is a fact. How do I know? I know it is a fact because
governors and legislators have said so on talk radio shows for years yet all of
them are acting more like morticians than doctors.

Governor Justice, we all enjoy your vivid metaphors about
raccoons and poodles and patients whose blood is spurting to the ceiling, but
the next time you send one of your metaphors out to bite your political
opponents, make sure the metaphor can tell the difference between you and your
intended targets.

Governor Justice, I sent you a plan that gives “outside
investment” the STEM-educated workforce that will attract that outside
investment. If you haven’t read it, here it is again:

1.
Make the Promise Scholarship a STEM scholarship. Companies won’t come here for
our English majors, political science majors and communications majors, but
they will come here to gain access to our mathematicians,
software engineers, chemists and other STEM grads if we produce them in large
numbers.

2.
Require Promise Scholarship recipients to sign a contract with West Virginia
obligating them to stay in West Virginia for, say, 5 years after graduation.
Too many of West Virginia’s college grads are leaving with their degrees and
making some other state’s workforce magnetic to outside
investment. If they give us five years, they’ll marry, have children, build
houses, and make friends. Most will never leave. Maybe along the way they’ll
invent things and, who knows, maybe some of them will start the next Apple or
the next Google.

3. Expand the Promise Scholarship to fund tens of
thousands of students’ annually instead of the current 3,000 to 3,500 annually.
At its current size, the Promise Scholarship is the right medicine in a dosage
insufficient to heal the West Virginia economy.

4. Double the per-student annual scholarship award
from its current $4,750 to around $9,000 or $10,000 so students can carry full
loads and finish in 4 years.

5. Pay the college debt of STEM grads who want to come
to West Virginia and are willing to sign a contract requiring them to become
part of West Virginia’s workforce for at least five years.

6.
Pay for the above with a severance tax, an excise tax or the proceeds from the
state lottery or some combination of the aforementioned. For example, the
Tennessee Promise program provides 2 years of free technical or community
college to Tennessee high school grads at a cost of about $35 million annually
and is paid for by the state lottery.

7.
Finally, remove The Promise Scholarship from the Education department and put
it under Commerce where an economic development/workforce development tool
belongs.

--

Higginbotham At
Large neither reads nor publishes comments from pseudonymous or anonymous
commenters. No Ring of Gyges for you. I’ll be happy to publish opposing views
from clearly-identified submitters.

About Joseph
Higginbotham:

Joseph
Higginbotham is a former member of the West Virginia Region III Workforce Development
Board, a former executive and technical search consultant, a former general
manager and a former columnist and writer for newspapers, magazines and
journals such as Business Lexington, Rx HomeCare, Leadership, Drug Store
News, Campus Career Counselor, Home Health Care Dealer and more.
Higginbotham has spoken professionally at over 40 venues, served as an “expert
panelist” at jobseeker workshops and a guest on numerous talk radio shows.

22 February, 2017

11 legislators want to make the
Bible the official state book of West Virginia. This in a year when 10,000
people per year are leaving our state, businesses are closing and our
legislators haven't done anything to fix the workforce and the economy.

This just in: After I posted this, I got an email from Delegate Rodney Miller telling me he has removed his name from the Bible bill.

These 11 legislators showed up
at the 2017 session without a plan to
fix the workforce or the economy but they have time to introduce silly,
unnecessary legislation? Please, if you live in one of these legislators'
districts, call or write them and tell them that you will remember how they
fiddled as West Virginia burns down.

And since our legislators still
haven't submitted a plan to get Wes Virginia working, let me remind these 11
legislators that I have introduced a plan (below) that I welcome them to steal.

1.
Make the Promise Scholarship a STEM scholarship. Companies won’t come here for
our English majors, political science majors and communications majors, but
they will come here to gain access to our mathematicians,
software engineers, chemists and other STEM grads if we produce them in large
numbers.

2. Require Promise Scholarship
recipients to sign a contract with West Virginia obligating them to stay in
West Virginia for, say, 5 years after graduation. Too many of West Virginia’s
college grads are leaving with their degrees and making some other
state’s workforce magnetic to outside investment. If they give us five years,
they’ll marry, have children, build houses, make friends. Most will never
leave. Maybe along the way they’ll invent things and, who knows, maybe some of
them will start the next Apple or the next Google.

3.
Expand the Promise Scholarship to fund tens of thousands of students’ annually
instead of the current 3,000 to 3,500 annually. At its current size, the
Promise Scholarship is the right medicine in a dosage insufficient to heal the
West Virginia economy.

4.
Double the per-student annual scholarship award from its current $4,750 to
around $9,000 or $10,000 so students can carry full loads and finish in 4
years.

5.
Pay the college debt of STEM grads who want to come to West Virginia and are
willing to sign a contract requiring them to become part of West Virginia’s
workforce for at least five years.

6.
Pay for the above with a severance tax, an excise tax or the proceeds from the
state lottery or some combination of the aforementioned. For example, the
Tennessee Promise program provides 2 years of free technical or community
college to Tennessee high school grads at a cost of about $35 million annually
and is paid for by the state lottery.

About Joseph Higginbotham:

Joseph Higginbotham is a former member
of the West Virginia Region III Workforce Investment Board, a former executive
and technical search consultant, a former general manager and a former
columnist and writer for newspapers, magazines and journals such as Business
Lexington, Rx HomeCare, Leadership, Drug Store News, Campus Career Counselor,
Home Health Care Dealer and more. Higginbotham has spoken professionally at
over 40 venues, served as an “expert panelist” at jobseeker workshops and a
guest on numerous talk radio shows.

--

Higginbotham At Large neither reads
nor publishes comments from pseudonymous or anonymous commenters. No Ring of
Gyges for you.

15 February, 2017

One of these days when a state legislator goes on the Hoppy Kercheval show or the Danny Jones show and correctly identifies West Virginia's lack of an educated workforce as our number one constraint on economic prosperity and population growth, the radio host will ask the following question: "So what are you doing to give West Virginia the thousands of new college-educated workers we need to attract investment and jobs?"One of these days.But until the media asks the logical follow-up question, here's my plan:

1. Make the Promise Scholarship a STEM scholarship. Companies won’t come here for our English majors, political science majors and communications majors, but they will come here to gain access to our mathematicians, software engineers, chemists and other STEM grads if we produce them in large numbers.

2. Require Promise Scholarship recipients to sign a contract with West Virginia obligating them to stay in West Virginia for, say, 5 years after graduation. Too many of West Virginia’s college grads are leaving with their degrees and making some other state’s workforce magnetic to outside investment. If they give us five years, they’ll marry, have children, build houses, make friends. Most will never leave. Maybe along the way they’ll invent things and, who knows, maybe some of them will start the next Apple or the next Google.

3. Expand the Promise Scholarship to fund tens of thousands of students’ annually instead of the current 3,000 to 3,500 annually. At its current size, the Promise Scholarship is the right medicine in a dosage insufficient to heal the West Virginia economy.

4. Double the per-student annual scholarship award from its current $4,750 to around $9,000 or $10,000 so students can carry full loads and finish in 4 years.

5. Pay the college debt of STEM grads who want to come to West Virginia and are willing to sign a contract requiring them to become part of West Virginia’s workforce for at least five years.

6. Pay for the above with a severance tax, an excise tax or the proceeds from the state lottery or some combination of the aforementioned. For example, the Tennessee Promise program provides 2 years of free technical or community college to Tennessee high school grads at a cost of about $35 million annually and is paid for by the state lottery.

About Joseph Higginbotham:

Joseph Higginbotham is a former member of the West Virginia Region III Workforce Investment Board, a former executive and technical search consultant, a former general manager and a former columnist and writer for newspapers, magazines and journals such as Business Lexington, Rx HomeCare, Leadership, Drug Store News, Campus Career Counselor, Home Health Care Dealer and more. Higginbotham has spoken professionally at over 40 venues, served as an “expert panelist” at jobseeker workshops and a guest on numerous talk radio shows.--Higginbotham At Large neither reads nor publishes comments from pseudonymous or anonymous commenters. No Ring of Gyges for you. Mitch Carmichael, Tim Armstead, Senator Mike Hall, Corey Palumbo, Hoppy Kercheval, Mayor Danny Jones, Tom Roten, Jake Jarvis, Ashton Marra, Scott Finn, #StruggleToStay,

Here's my "Higginbotham Plan" which I've been sharing with lobbyists and red-faced legislators for weeks. My plan is more of an economic development plan since West Virginia's elected leaders haven't dealt with West Virginia's constraint on prosperity, our poorly-educated workforce.

1. Make the Promise Scholarship a STEM scholarship. Companies won’t come here for our English majors, political science majors and communications majors, but they will come here to gain access to our mathematicians, software engineers, chemists and other STEM grads if we produce them in large numbers.

2. Require Promise Scholarship recipients to sign a contract with West Virginia obligating them to stay in West Virginia for, say, 5 years after graduation. Too many of West Virginia’s college grads are leaving with their degrees and making some other state’s workforce magnetic to outside investment. If they give us five years, they’ll marry, have children, build houses, make friends. Most will never leave. Maybe along the way they’ll invent things and, who knows, maybe some of them will start the next Apple or the next Google.

3. Expand the Promise Scholarship to fund tens of thousands of students’ annually instead of the current 3,000 to 3,500 annually. At its current size, the Promise Scholarship is the right medicine in a dosage insufficient to heal the West Virginia economy.

4. Double the per-student annual scholarship award from its current $4,750 to around $9,000 or $10,000 so students can carry full loads and finish in 4 years.

5. Pay the college debt of STEM grads who want to come to West Virginia and are willing to sign a contract requiring them to become part of West Virginia’s workforce for at least five years.

6. Pay for the above with a severance tax, an excise tax or the proceeds from the state lottery or some combination of the aforementioned. For example, the Tennessee Promise program provides 2 years of free technical or community college to Tennessee high school grads at a cost of about $35 million annually and is paid for by the state lottery.

About Joseph Higginbotham:

Joseph Higginbotham is a former member of the West Virginia Region III Workforce Investment Board, a former executive and technical search consultant, a former general manager and a former columnist and writer for newspapers, magazines and journals such as Business Lexington, Rx HomeCare, Leadership, Drug Store News, Campus Career Counselor, Home Health Care Dealer and more. Higginbotham has spoken professionally at over 40 venues, served as an “expert panelist” at jobseeker workshops and a guest on numerous talk radio shows.--Higginbotham At Large neither reads nor publishes comments from pseudonymous or anonymous commenters. No Ring of Gyges for you. Mitch Carmichael, Tim Armstead, Senator Mike Hall, Corey Palumbo, Hoppy Kercheval, Mayor Danny Jones, Tom Roten, Jake Jarvis, Ashton Marra, Scott Finn, #StruggleToStay,

10 February, 2017

With your powers of policy and purse, West Virginia's legislators are not only responsible for the budget, you are the de facto Chief Economic Development Officers for the state. Our high schools are telling our teenagers that they must plan to leave West Virginia after high school or college because our elected leaders aren't going to do what it takes to give our youth a fighting chance to succeed here. You must stop wringing your hands and clucking about Governor Jim Justice's plan to make Woody Thrasher richer and come up with a plan of your own. You can't fix West Virginia's economy without spending some money. I'm sorry that previous governors and previous legislatures have neglected economic development for decades leaving you with an economic and population emergency but that's what you signed up for when you ran for your seat as a de facto Economic Development Chief. Now do your job. You should have already had an economic plan when you filed for office. Below, is my plan. Don't criticize my plan if you don't have one.

1. Make the Promise Scholarship a STEM scholarship. Companies won’t come here for our English majors, political science majors and communications majors, but they will come here to gain access to our mathematicians, software engineers, chemists and other STEM grads if we produce them in large numbers.

2. Require Promise Scholarship recipients to sign a contract with West Virginia obligating them to stay in West Virginia for, say, 5 years after graduation. Too many of West Virginia’s college grads are leaving with their degrees and making some other state’s workforce magnetic to outside investment. If they give us five years, they’ll marry, have children, build houses, make friends. Most will never leave. Maybe along the way they’ll invent things and, who knows, maybe some of them will start the next Apple or the next Google.

3. Expand the Promise Scholarship to fund tens of thousands of students’ annually instead of the current 3,000 to 3,500 annually. At its current size, the Promise Scholarship is the right medicine in a dosage insufficient to heal the West Virginia economy.

4. Double the per-student annual scholarship award from its current $4,750 to around $9,000 or $10,000 so students can carry full loads and finish in 4 years.

5. Pay the college debt of STEM grads who want to come to West Virginia and are willing to sign a contract requiring them to become part of West Virginia’s workforce for at least five years.

6. Pay for the above with a severance tax, an excise tax or the proceeds from the state lottery or some combination of the aforementioned.

About Joseph Higginbotham:

Joseph Higginbotham is a former member of the West Virginia Region III Workforce Investment Board, a former executive and technical search consultant, a former general manager and a former columnist and writer for newspapers, magazines and journals such as Business Lexington, Rx HomeCare, Leadership, Drug Store News, Campus Career Counselor, Home Health Care Dealer and more. Higginbotham has spoken professionally at over 40 venues, served as an “expert panelist” at jobseeker workshops and a guest on numerous talk radio shows.--Higginbotham At Large neither reads nor publishes comments from pseudonymous or anonymous commenters. No Ring of Gyges for you. Mitch Carmichael, Tim Armstead, Senator Mike Hall, Corey Palumbo, Hoppy Kercheval, Mayor Danny Jones, Tom Roten, Jake Jarvis, Ashton Marra, Scott Finn, #StruggleToStay,

31 January, 2017

Our current taxation system is an artifact of a time when
people had jobs, which meant they had employers who could deduct income tax
from their paychecks.

This system doesn’t work anymore. Many people no longer have
employers. They have gigs. They have 1099s, not w-2s and w-4s. “Self-employment”
is the new unemployment.

With no payroll person to deduct taxes from their pay, there
are a lot of people who are essentially on the honor system. Many people are
dishonorable.

I’m calling upon our legislature to collect more taxes by
changing the way taxes are collected, not by raising taxes on the few honorable
people who pay and from the shrinking numbers of people who have a job where a
payroll person deducts taxes from their paychecks.

There are two ways the West Virginia legislature can collect
more taxes. The first way is to increase taxes on the few who pay them. The second
way is to collect taxes at point-of-purchase where everybody will have to pay
the tax when they buy food, services, cars, clothing, gasoline or anything
else.

Did you ever wonder how a drug dealer pays taxes? He
probably doesn’t. It’s a cash business and even if he wanted to pay taxes he
really can’t report income without incriminating himself.

Does it make you mad that drug dealers, prostitutes and
others in cash businesses benefit from the things government provides but they
don’t help pay for it like you do?

The legislature can right that injustice by dropping the
income tax that only a few pay and imposing a sales or consumption tax that
everybody pays.

West Virginia legislature, don’t increase taxes on the few
who pay them, impose a tax that tax evaders can’t evade. Don’t increase the
amount of tax each person pays, increase the number of people who pay tax.

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Description of Higginbotham At Large

Higginbotham At Large is published by Joseph Higginbotham, an unlicensed, disintermediated writer who has written hundreds of articles and columns for dozens of magazines and newspapers. My high school writing teacher, Nancy Williams, tricked me into selling my first article in 1973. Ms. Williams didn't tell me I wasn't allowed to write professionally unless I had a degree from Iowa Writers' Workshop or some other accredited academic institution. Thank you, Ms. Williams, wherever you are.

Higginbotham At Large sees systems and applies systems thinking to posts about a range of topics.